Breakdown of Wij hopen dat de diplomatie de escalatie voorkomt.
wij
we
hopen
to hope
dat
that (conjunction)
voorkomen
to prevent
de diplomatie
the diplomacy
de escalatie
the escalation
Questions & Answers about Wij hopen dat de diplomatie de escalatie voorkomt.
Why does Dutch use de before diplomatie and escalatie when English just says "diplomacy" and "escalation"?
Dutch frequently uses definite articles (de or het) before abstract nouns or concepts when referring to them in a general sense. English almost always drops "the" for general abstract concepts.
The verb voorkomen can mean "to prevent" or "to occur". How does the meaning change how the verb behaves grammatically?
When voorkomen means "to prevent", the stress is on the second syllable (voor-KO-men) and it is an inseparable verb. If it meant "to occur", the stress would be on the first syllable (VOOR-ko-men) and it would be separable. Because it means "prevent" here, it would never split (even in a main clause), and its past participle is simply voorkomen without a ge- prefix.
As a quick refresher, why is voorkomt pushed to the very end of the sentence?
The word dat introduces a subordinate clause. In Dutch subordinate clauses, the finite verb (the working verb that matches the subject) must always be placed at the end of the clause.
Since we are practicing absolute participial constructions in this lesson, how would we add a framing phrase like "That being said" to the start of this sentence?
You would write: Dat gezegd hebbende, hopen wij dat de diplomatie de escalatie voorkomt. Notice that because the participial phrase Dat gezegd hebbende takes up the first position in the sentence, it triggers word-order inversion in the main clause, swapping wij hopen to hopen wij.
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